Intel Capital Invests $23 Million into Wearable Electronics Company.

Basis Science, the company behind Basis, one the most advanced health tracker to improve fitness and sleep, has announced it has raised a further $11.75 million in series B funding. The round included investments from Intel Capital, iNovia Capital, Dolby Family Trust, Stanford University and Peninsula-KCG. The new funds will help Basis to develop its wearable computing gadgets.

Basis also announced the expansion of its product team with the hire of vice president of product, Ethan Fassett, a veteran in mobile and platform product strategy. Most recently, Mr. Fassett was an entrepreneur in residence at Trinity Ventures. Previously, he served as senior vice president of product for Gree International, where he led development of its mobile social gaming platform in the U.S. market. Prior to Gree, Ethan was executive producer for the San Francisco studio of the social gaming company Playdom, where he launched two titles and drove studio operations throughout their acquisition by Disney.

In his role, Ethan Fassett will leverage his extensive technology experience to drive Basis’ product development, with a focus on the convergence of contextual data and wearable technology. Building on Basis’ biosensor approach to physiology and behavior change, Ethan and the team will continue to make the Basis system more intelligent through an enhanced understanding of user behavior patterns and intention, sensor-captured information and other data-based insights.

Existing investors Mayfield Fund, DCM and Norwest Venture Partners, also participated in the new round of funding. This new investment represents the close of the Basis Series B financing, which now totals more than $23 million.

“We now capture billions of heart beats each week and our users remain more engaged with our system versus other options in the category. With this new support, we’ll be able to continue to build on our strong foundation and offer a great experience for many more people looking to build healthy habits,” said Jef Holove, chief executive officer of Basis

According to IMS Research, the wearables market is poised to grow from 14 million devices shipped in 2011, to as many as 171 million units shipped by 2016, and given this explosive growth, there is understandably significant interest from investors.

“Wearable computing enables a data-driven approach to managing healthcare and fitness. By collecting heart rate, skin and ambient temperature data along with movement tracking, the Basis multi-sensor band opens up opportunities for data analytics driving deeper insights into health and personal behavior,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president.

Discussion

Wearable developers, technologists, designers, telecom and hardware providers are set to attend Wearable Computing Conference 2013 in New York next November 7, the biggest forum on wearable technologies on the East Coast.